I’m writing my thesis in Scrivener but need to share with my Supervisors, who both add comments in Word. I know I can re-import their word-comment-version to Scrivener but is there anyway to preserve my Document Notes / Synopsis to their version?
I’d like to make edits based on their comments from within Scrivener (yuh, who wants to work in word ) but I don’t necessarily want to lose my document notes for each chapter.
The only work around I can think of is importing their version as for example “Chapter-2b” and then using split screen to work on my version and their commented version. Anyone got a better idea?
If the average file size in your draft isn’t too small, or if the people you’re working with don’t mind going through smaller files, you could give the folder sync tool a try. It was in part designed for this kind of thing. If you use RTF, they’ll be able to add comments in Word, save the files, and then you run sync and it updates your project automatically. Since you can choose where the folder is, that can include things like using a Dropbox share folder, so everyone has the latest versions. You can set it up and experiment with it from the File/Sync/with External Folder menu command.
Or if you’re just working one file at a time, that all might be too complex of a solution. You could just try copy and paste from the imported file, to replace the older document. You can snapshot before you do this to preserve the pre-edited version, if you want. The idea is to keep using the same spot in the Binder, and just update the text as needed from external sources. That way you don’t lose your card info and any other keywords or notes you take.
How about cutting and pasting their comments as footnotes or comments within your Scrivener project?
I’ve only converted from Scrivener into Word (it thinks I want footnotes and inline comments as running notes, when in fact they’re mostly snarky comments that can be deleted), so there may be a more elegant way to do this.
You might want to keep your various stages of production as snapshots (make a descriptive title) so you can move back and forth to discover the bon mots.
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Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of trying something via external sync. I’m looking for a system that allows the least amount of human error to enter into it (copying & pasting is too time consuming and I think I might get lost in versions).
But I could do something via external sync definitely -I’ll have to refresh how this works.
Thanks
UPDATE: I tried this but the sync deletes all other data associated with the file. That is, it completely changes the version in my manuscript to the version in the sync folder (synopsis, comments, keywords, internal links all lost).
I think I’ll have to compile/export by Chapter, then import in the chapter with their comments and use split screen to amend my version based on their comments. I’m not really willing to lose all the associated ‘meta-data’ with my file.
) but I don’t necessarily want to lose my document notes for each chapter.
